Articles by Jamie Flinchbaugh

Before you start down a path, make sure you’re setting off on the correct journey.

A lean tool won’t make you a lean thinker any more than a paintbrush or a sax will make you Rembrandt or John Coltrane.  

Hockey stick behavior is such a serious manipulation of the numbers that manufacturers should have to report it in the footnotes of their public financials.

Not Invented Here is toxic to the basic principle of lean-continuous improvement.

A real team is a group of people who leverage each other’s strengths, and overcome each other’s weaknesses, while working toward a common goal.

How you analyze a spaghetti diagram is crucial, because it is the understanding that matters; not the map.

Lean practitioners get people “on board” and demonstrate the right behaviors; lean is not a passive sport.

The purpose of process mapping is to develop common understanding. Most groups fail to grasp this.

Lean is a battle of willpower to overcome resistance to change, and win the hearts and minds of those in your organization.

You have to ask the right questions to get useful answers that add value.